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DIAMONDS TO SIT ON

stopping-places, and the plays were supposed to popularize the idea of State loans. As far as Stalingrad the theatre company were to be at the disposal of the Financial Commission, and after that it was to make an independent tour of the Crimea and the Caucasus with Gogol’s Marriage. The Scriabin was overdue. It was not expected to be in before the evening because of certain prepara­ tions, and all the passengers from Moscow were waiting on the landing-stage. The typists were sitting on bundles of rope, their suit-cases and ' Underwoods ’ at their feet, and rugs over their knees. Some writing­ tables were piled up in a comer. A soldier was walking up and down guarding the safe, while Persitsky the reporter from the Stanok was standing to one side and was examining the crowd through a pair of binoculars. The Scriabin came in slowly. The siren whistled and the financial-theatrical crowd grew animated. Malkin Galkin, Palkin, Chaikin, and Zalkind ran out of the public-house. The safe was hoisted up by the crane. The acrobatic instructress. Georgette, ran nimbly up the gangway. The cinema operator lifted his apparatus above the heads of the crowd and insisted on having a four-bunk cabin as a laboratory. In the general confusion Hippolyte crept up to the chairs, and, without realizing what he was doing, began to drag one of them to one side. ‘ Drop that chair at once ! ’ said Bender. ‘ Have you no sense ? We’ll get one chair, yes, and the rest will be lost to us for ever. It would be more to the point if you tried to get on to the steamer.’ Members of the brass band passed up the gangway and looked scornfully at the saxophone and flexotone players. The lottery wheels were brought up on a small Ford van. The wheels were of a complicated construction, consisting of six revolving cylinders, and it took a long time to install them on the lower deck. There was a